6 September 1715 - Jacobite Rebellion

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On the 6th September 1715, the Jacobite standard was raised at Braemar.

Glasgow was staunchly pro-Government and sent
500 troops to fight against the Jacobites. They were led by a former Lord
Provost, John Aird. Guns were stationed in the town and Jacobite prisoners held
in the Tolbooth. Learn more about Glasgow and the Jacobites at the City
Archives.

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There had been an earlier
rebellion in 1708 when James I tried unsuccessfully to land in Scotland with
French troops. This is the indictment against the ringleaders for ‘threatening and imminent
against our coast, to destroy Her Majesty, and all Her good subjects, and ruin
our Religion, Laws and Liberties’.

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This is part of a letter
by Stirling of Keir, one of the ringleaders of the 1708 rebellion, from when he
was held in Newgate Prison, London. He was writing to his wife, whom he calls
the ‘light of my life’.

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The Cathedral area of
Glasgow in the 18th Century. Guns were stationed here during the
1715 Rebellion, although the town was never actually attacked.

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​The accounts of the Town
Council show how much the Rebellion cost Glasgow. They give the cost of
bringing the Great Guns from Port Glasgow and the Bromieland to defend the city
and paying the messenger who brought the news that the ‘Highlanders were up in
arms’.

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​The Tolbooth in the 18th
Century. 353 Jacobite prisoners were held here after the 1715 Rebellion.

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The Town Council wrote to
the Duke of Argyll asking him to give orders to remove 353 rebel prisoners
because of the cost to the town.